From the Publisher

A Year End Reflection…
December 24, 2003

Do you have room for one more?

Most of us have been blessed beyond measure! We have skills and talents, jobs and opportunities, friends and family. Most of our needs and many of our wants are satisfied. And those of us who are professionals in business continuity or emergency management spend our working hours helping functional organizations stay functional. Or we help a thriving enterprise get quickly back in business after a disaster. We mitigate, prepare and protect as a way of life.

But for many in our world, continuity and recovery are distant worries. For them, starting to function is the goal! Countless individuals and families, far and near, can only live in survival mode. Their lives are not dysfunctional due to natural disaster or terrorism—but because of issues much more complicated. It is so easy for me to spend my time with the highly functional people and organizations that I forget those who wake up with very different challenges:

Substandard housing
Poverty
Hunger
Physical and mental illness
Lack of education or opportunity
Loneliness and despair

Buckminster Fuller invented the remarkable geodesic dome. It is the lightest, strongest, and most cost-effective structure ever devised. His life was committed to doing more with less. He stated, in 1980, “All humanity now has the option to become enduringly successful.” To be enduringly successful is the essence of continuity! But he referred to all of humanity!

We live in a technologically advanced world with a global economy meeting needs 24/7. Why haven’t we made greater progress in meeting basic needs for all people? Are solutions to be found in government programs or grassroots movements? The resources are there; the problem is distribution. That’s where we come in. Our industry is filled with compassionate people who are problem solvers! People who can jump in with sleeves rolled up and make things work.

What If……
What would happen if each of us were to make “room for one more” in our lives? I don’t mean the giving of money or donations from our surplus. But rather an ongoing commitment to a person or a family with a mindset that says, “I care for you. I will be there for you. You can be enduringly successful and I want to help!”

Room for one more could mean…

Becoming a Big Brother or Big Sister
Taking in a foster child
Visiting an elderly person who has no one
Mentoring an immigrant family
Adopting an older child into your family

The adoptions of our two children have brought us in contact with families who go beyond the comforts of infant adoption and offer hope to older children, to little girls abandoned because they were not male, to kids rescued from abusive homes. Others invest their time building homes for the homeless, mentoring the lost, or investing in the lives of inmates, their families, their children.

Though none of us can single handedly help all people, we can each make room for one more. And so in this time of reflection on our many blessings, we offer below a partial list of organizations making a difference in lives worldwide. They need our help.

Do you have room for one more?

Wishing you a joyous holiday season and blessings in 2004,

Kathy Gannon Rainey
Publisher

There are many outstanding outreach programs. We spotlight a few of these organizations. Perhaps learning about them will lead you to participate in some way.

Habitat for Humanity
www.habitat.org
Habitat for Humanity is a nonprofit international housing organization. Since 1976, Habitat has built more than 150,000 houses in more than 89 countries, including some 50,000 houses across the United States.

Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption
www.davethomasfoundationforadoption.org/
The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption is a non-profit public charity dedicated to increasing the adoptions of the more than 150,000 children in North America’s foster care system. Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy’s International, created the Foundation in 1992 in support of the vision that every child deserves a permanent home and a loving family. The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption focuses on increasing adoption awareness while supporting model adoption service programs.

ApproTec
www.approtec.org/about.shtml
ApproTEC’s mission is to promote sustainable economic growth and create employments in Kenya and other countries by developing and promoting technologies that can be used to establish and run profitable, small scale enterprises. ApproTEC believes that self-motivated private entrepreneurs managing small-scale enterprises are the most effective agents for developing emergent economies.

World Vision
www.worldvision.org
Founded in 1950, World Vision is a relief and development organization, serving the world's poorest children and families in nearly 100 countries.

ActionAid
www.actionaid.org/aboutus/home.shtml
ActionAid is a unique partnership of people who are fighting for a better world - a world without poverty. As one of the UK’s largest development agencies, they work in more than 40 countries within Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. They listen to, learn from and work in partnership with over nine million of the world’s poorest people.

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
www.ifrc.org
The Federation's mission is to improve the lives of vulnerable people by mobilizing the power of humanity. Vulnerable people are those who are at greatest risk from situations that threaten their survival, or their capacity to live with an acceptable level of social and economic security and human dignity. Often, these are victims of natural disasters, poverty brought about by socio-economic crises, refugees, and victims of health emergencies.

Big Brothers Big Sisters
www.bbbsi.org and www.bbbsa.org
All over the world there are vulnerable children who may not be able to reach their full potential in growing up - refugees throughout Europe, street children in South America, young victims of HIV/AIDS in Africa, social orphans in Russia, children growing up in poverty around the world - children and youth who lack opportunities to go beyond their daily struggle for survival to experience positive youth development. A volunteer Big Brother or Big Sister helps a young person have a better sense of self and a positive view of the future. A mentoring relationship empowers both young people and adults to be active in their community - creating possibilities for both the Littles and the Bigs.

National Mentoring Partnership
www.mentoring.org/
For more than a decade, MENTOR/National Mentoring Partnership has been leading the effort to connect America's young people with caring adult mentors. Today, approximately 35.2 million children, ages 10 to 18, live in the United States. Of that number, about half - or 17.6 million - could benefit greatly from a high-quality formal mentoring relationship with a caring adult. Many face especially difficult circumstances: 1 out of 4 lives with only one parent; 1 out of 10 is born to teen parents; 1 out of 5 lives in poverty; and 1 out of 10 will not finish high school.

Currently, it is believed that, of the 17.6 million young people who need mentors, approximately 2.5 million are in formal, high-quality mentoring relationships. That means more than 15 million young people still need mentors. That unmet need constitutes what we call the "mentoring gap." MENTOR works to close this gap.

Prison Fellowship International
www.pfi.org/programmes
Angel Tree® – The Angel Tree® Program is a special outreach to the children of prisoners at Christmas. In addition to the Christmas project, Angel Tree is in the process of providing camps, retreats, and a variety of year-round events and support services designed to keep the children of prisoners from becoming involved in a life of crime

Share Our Strength
www.strength.org
Share Our Strength, one of the nation's leading anti-hunger, anti-poverty organizations, began in the basement of a row house on Capitol Hill in 1984. In the beginning, they organized a handful of chefs to cook for fundraisers. Today they mobilize thousands of individuals in the culinary industry to organize events, host dinners, teach cooking and nutrition classes to low-income families and serve as anti-hunger advocates.

They have a simple but powerful philosophy: It takes more than food to fight hunger. Share Our Strength believes it takes both short- and long-term solutions, such as food assistance, job training, economic development programs and advocacy, to have a lasting impact. They also believe it takes each one of us, sharing our strength, to make a difference.

a Weekly Publication of Disaster Resource GUIDE.

The weekly Continuity e-GUIDE will provide a concise seven-day snapshot of the business continuity and emergency management industry from around the world right down to the local level.

Based on the philosophy of “working together”, the e-GUIDE will integrate, consolidate, and communicate resources from organizations that are leaders in business continuity, risk management, crisis management, emergency response, and disaster recovery.

Watch your Inbox each Wednesday for the latest edition of the Continuity e-GUIDE. Do you have an interesting story, case study or some breaking news? Contact the Editor, Nathan Mallett at nathan.mallett@disaster-resource.com

Interested in sponsoring a weekly update or spotlighting your product or service? Contact Tommy Rainey at tommyr@disaster-resource.com

The 2004 DISASTER RESOURCE GUIDE (9th annual Edition) will be published during the 1st quarter of 2004. Visit the online GUIDE to sign up for a free copy. You can sign up today. Click HERE>>